Marion
8th January 2007, 23:31
Have been doing a bit of reading about the Russian revolution and the position of the Factory Councils. The ICC have an interesting article on their site by a sympathiser on the issue (http://en.internationalism.org/wr/300/anarchism-and-workers-control). As part of it they state
"What made the Russian Revolution a real revolution was not the fact that workers formed committees in an effort to defend themselves in the face of the advancing capitalist crisis[2]. While an expression of the class struggle, these organs cannot be considered the final form of the proletariat’s control of society, simply because while they are essential to run the local aspects of economic activity their nature precludes them being able to manage the economy for the collective benefit of society as whole."
And elsewhere:
"This vacillation on the part of the anarchist milieu is also present in their theoretical approach to Red October. Their fetish for the Factory Committees betrays their vision of ‘communist’ society: a loose federation of commune factories, trading with each other."
Brinton's pamphlet "The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control" however speaks of the Bolshevik Party trying to "do all in is power to prevent the Committees from federating from below, in an autonomous manner".
Without getting into a pro or anti-Bolshevik argument, does anyone have any more information on the attempts to federate of the Committees? In addition, any thoughts on the ICC article's comments that:
"As the most class-conscious workers departed for the various fronts or to participate in the burgeoning Soviet state, the Factory Committees and Soviets began to take on a far more Menshevik colouring. Factory committees began to call for the re-establishment of the old municipal authorities i.e. the return of the state apparatus of the bourgeois and Tsarist state! Other resolutions were passed in favour of an end to the Civil War, i.e. accommodation with the same Whites that were (literally) crucifying communist workers wherever they found them."
Brinton is quiet on any of the above issues, so further info on this would be handy.
"What made the Russian Revolution a real revolution was not the fact that workers formed committees in an effort to defend themselves in the face of the advancing capitalist crisis[2]. While an expression of the class struggle, these organs cannot be considered the final form of the proletariat’s control of society, simply because while they are essential to run the local aspects of economic activity their nature precludes them being able to manage the economy for the collective benefit of society as whole."
And elsewhere:
"This vacillation on the part of the anarchist milieu is also present in their theoretical approach to Red October. Their fetish for the Factory Committees betrays their vision of ‘communist’ society: a loose federation of commune factories, trading with each other."
Brinton's pamphlet "The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control" however speaks of the Bolshevik Party trying to "do all in is power to prevent the Committees from federating from below, in an autonomous manner".
Without getting into a pro or anti-Bolshevik argument, does anyone have any more information on the attempts to federate of the Committees? In addition, any thoughts on the ICC article's comments that:
"As the most class-conscious workers departed for the various fronts or to participate in the burgeoning Soviet state, the Factory Committees and Soviets began to take on a far more Menshevik colouring. Factory committees began to call for the re-establishment of the old municipal authorities i.e. the return of the state apparatus of the bourgeois and Tsarist state! Other resolutions were passed in favour of an end to the Civil War, i.e. accommodation with the same Whites that were (literally) crucifying communist workers wherever they found them."
Brinton is quiet on any of the above issues, so further info on this would be handy.